UTA Speakers’ Post

great article! thanks we remind us "that it works!" and great illustration - it takes all kind of stones to build a solid wall!

Yes, it works if it is structured to work and people are willing to engage in it’s working. If a practitioner, well-versed academic, or someone posing as one of the above doesn’t have depth and the ability to adapt to local context and business needs, all firms will get is an ideological melee with limited and likely zero long-term positive impact. The most visible critics of DEI have little to no clue what good looks like. They use it as a blunt force instrument for attention and their ideological push back to the limited ideological notions that too many people promote about DEI—that it is predominantly (rather than partially) about righting past wrongs. If we want the DEI attacks to land with little to no vibration, those committed need to extend our range and make the work accessible to all, unambiguously prioritized like other org priorities, and purpose aligned. Otherwise, we will proceed with platitudes and distractive/divisive tiddlywinks with a few narcissistic billionaires.

It's so funny, I just posted a celebration of my super-inclusive short film LOOP's trajectory in the 4 years since we made it. And I think it's a case study of this point. Rather than hitting the market and disappearing within weeks, the inclusive nature of our process and the film's story has created an EVERGREEN property that has been continually in action since Jan 2020. I don't have analytics on the success of this short film on Disney+, but I have the anecdotal experience of being asked to speak and screen the film continuously over 4 years. Of getting mentions in media outlets, social media feeds, and shoutouts from autistic people across the globe continually for 4 years. This is a single 9 minute short film that I do nothing to promote. This is not normal. It's better. And it's because of a DEI initiative. Thank you for the article.

Spot on - the cost of claiming intent is low but not of delivering inclusivity. Inclusive leadership became the buzzword last few years and check-box activity to show leaders attended training while there has been very little in 1) real measures to assess for inclusivity 2) intent to value inclusivity 3) and courage to hold accountability. Pandemic saw committed people leaders take the extra burden and not really be valued - just like first responders who went without recognition.

D.E.I is no longer just an acronym of indulgence in the mission statements of where we work but is a necessity to be adopted for a sustainable growth in the times to come. In her recent 📚 Rising Together Sally Helgesen mentions Inclusive Workplace is "one in which everybody - the largest percentage possible of people feels valued for their potential, not just their contribution and feels as they matter in the organisation in terms of its mission, in terms of its purpose. An ideal inclusive workplace is where people tend to speak about We as opposed to They". And this can only be encouraged by cultivating a culture of psychological safety - a concept gifted to us by professor Amy Edmondson in her wonderful research studies wherein she found that a psychologically safe workplace is where voicing your opinion is accepted without the fear of a repercussion. In present time when our teams are mainly from the GenZ & GenAlpha group, it is thus a requirement for any organization to nurture a culture of "Unity in Diversity" - for when we join hands with love - we all rise 🤝 with your thoughts professors Frances Frei, Anne Morriss & Caroline Elkins - I thoroughly enjoyed the writeup 👏🙏

Thank you Frances Frei and Anne Morriss for this necessary offering. (Frances you have the longer version of my reflections offline…🤓) but one thing that peaked my particular interest are the results of Amy Edmondson’s study on psychological safety and its relationship to the success of inclusive teams. I agree with this thesis, but I think we look at it myopically. Aren’t there some employees who actually shouldn’t feel psychologically safe in their long held conscious and unconscious biases? Isn’t it important to make the distinction between which (positive) needs for psychological safety should be nurtured, and which (harmful) needs for psychological safety shouldn’t be enabled? Example - CEO bans discussions about “politics” (we all know what that is code for!) in order to protect their own psychological safety and that of other historically included people. Sounds like progress, but is it?

is reimagining inclusion to interdependance much wiser? https://thefulcrum.us/reimagining-dei-better-future

Unfortunately, I'm not a paying member of NY Times so I can't read this article, which is a shame because I'm a DEI researcher.

Thank you for this post Frances Frei. I knew there was something special about you when you helped orient me back at HBS in 2003. 😜 Inclusion just makes companies better because it assures a more complete world view. As an example, when I was heading product marketing for the SNKRS app/ studio at Nike, the head of the studio thought he was onto something and had revealed a whole new pocket of consumers because a data scientist in our studio showed him that there were hot spots on a map of high usage of the app but very low purchase attempts. They believed themselves to be onto a group of consumers that I don't know, didn't know how to hit the buy button (cringe). I suggested to them that if they overlay that map with check cashing businesses, there would likely be high overlap due to the pockets of our country, states and cities that do not have "traditional" banking relationships. Ding ding ding. Sadly this led them down the road of coming up with a plan (which was luckily shelved) to drive shoes into those neighborhoods so those same communities could pay with cash. Further cringe and the result of a lack of meaningful inclusion in thought.

Supporters argue that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives not only promote fairness but also enhance creativity, problem-solving, and overall organizational performance. Acknowledging their effectiveness is crucial for fostering positive change.